When someone wants to check your "spiritual temperature," what's the first question? "Are you in church?"
Not "How's your prayer life?" Not "What's God been teaching you?"
Nope. Church attendance. As if sitting in a room with strangers equals spiritual growth.
Here's what killsme: Your pastor probably doesn't even know your name, but somehow perfect attendance makes you spiritually mature?
Make it make sense.
Here's What Nobody Asks
How's your actual prayer life?
What are you studying?
How's your relationship with God?
These questions matter. These reveal whether you're walking with God or just occupying space in a building once a week.
But here's the crazy part: The same people measuring your spiritual maturity by attendance can't even tell you your favorite Bible verse. They don't know your struggles, your victories, your actual relationship with God.
Yet somehow, showing up = spiritual growth?
Jesus said, "When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen" (Matthew 6:6). Notice He didn't say, "Make sure everyone sees you in the sanctuary."
The Real Issue
This obsession with church attendance isn't about your spiritual growth. It's about control.
When you can measure spiritual maturity by butts in seats instead of actual relationships, everything becomes easier. No messy discipleship. No time-consuming mentoring. Just head counts and offering totals.
It's spiritual manipulation, wrapped in religious language. They want you in there so their approval equals God's approval—even though they wouldn't recognize your spiritual growth if it walked up and introduced itself.
Here's my favorite test: Can you call your pastor right now? If you had a crisis, would they answer?
Better yet—would they even know who you are when you tell them your name?
Because if someone claims to be measuring your spiritual maturity but doesn't know your story—what kind of measurement is that?
The Truth
God told Samuel, "People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).
Your heart. Not your attendance record.
Some of the most spiritually mature people I know rarely go to church. Some of the most immature haven't missed a service in decades.
Here's what's wild: We've created a system where strangers measure your spiritual maturity by whether you show up to sit with other strangers. Meanwhile, the God who actually knows you intimately isn't impressed by your attendance streak.
"Your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19). You're the temple. You carry God's presence wherever you go.
So next time someone asks if you're in church, ask them back: "Are you in relationship with the God who's already in me?"
That's a conversation worth having.
What should people ask instead of "Are you in church?"
